Newly-elected councillors and returning veterans say they want to use a balanced approach address a potential shortfall in the city’s budget. They also want to use and maintain services and current infrastructure, as opposed to cutting services to lower a potential tax increase.

In mid-September, city administration shared a 2017 budget update with city council at a special meeting. According to the update, which is a preliminary estimate that does not include extra costs the city will incur next year because of growth, the city will bring in $10 million more in 2017 compared to 2016, but will also need to spend $17.9 million more. That would mean there would be a 3.89 per cent property tax increase.

Ward 1 Councillor-elect Darren Hill, who won his fourth term on Oct. 26, said a cut and slash approach is not the best way to lower a tax increase, but noted it’s “premature,” to comment on a preliminary report without seeing budget documents.

However, he said it’s important the city continue to look for efficiencies through service reviews, as the roughly 14 completed to-date since 2013 have resulted in a savings of approximately $3 million annually, said Hill.

“What we don’t want (during) budget deliberations is to see is somebody come in and thinking their first job is to cut full-time positions, or to cut service levels or decrease taxes,” he said. “That’s not what being a councillor is about. Being a councillor is about ensuring quality of services for the tax dollars and maintaining taxes at a low a level as possible.”

City Council in budget debates at City Hall, Monday, Nov. 30, 2015.Greg Pender /
Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Councillor-elect Cynthia Block, who beat out six other candidates to take Ward 6, said for her, she wants the City of Saskatoon to focus on maintaining infrastructure and core services before taking on any new major projects. Block said she’s concerned the tax increase will be “substantially higher” as the preliminary report doesn’t account for police budget or costs associated with growth.

“Everything that I’ve heard on the doorstep over the last four months, while many are very happy and proud about some of the things we’ve been able to accomplish over the last five to 10 years,” she said. “Now is the time to rein it in. Time to look after what we’ve got and get back to basics.”

She said there needs to be investment in core neighbourhood infrastructure gaps that “absolutely need to be addressed,” before discussing any further spending on larger projects.

Troy Davies, who was re-elected in Ward 4, said with Saskatoon’s road levy entering its final year in the upcoming budget cycle, it will reduce the tax burden and council can shift its focus from failing infrastructure to other projects.

“In the last four years, I felt like we were so far behind on our infrastructure needs that we had to take extreme measures, which was a three-year tax increase built into the road levy, to address those failing infrastructure needs,” he said. “In this term, we’ve already seen turnaround of what’s happening with our roads and our older neighbourhoods.”

“Now that we’ve got this infrastructure in place, these next four years are going to going to start to see the ability for us to have this road levy off our tax base and that’s going to bring it down a little bit,” he said, but noted roads and more amenities in his ward remain priority.

Councillor-elect in Ward 8, Sarina Gersher, who is serving her first term on council, said what she heard from voters while campaigning was a desire for a focus on basic services. Due to the fact she hasn’t had a chance to review the budget, there were no projects specifically she would like to see targeted for reductions.

“Lots of the things I heard on the doorstep was a concern for the aging infrastructure in our city as well as accountability in spending in crime and safety,” she said. “So I think making sure that we’re transparent and open in the budgeting process to make sure that we’re aligning spending with what citizens of Saskatoon expect.”

Councillors will be sworn in at Saskatoon’s inaugural meeting of city council on Monday.

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